Big pharmaceuticals buy more influence than ever

IF YOU want to win friends and influence people in high places – like Capitol Hill – take a leaf from the pharmaceutical industry’s book. A report published last week reveals that drug firms have spent &dollar;800 million since 1998 buying influence, including &dollar;675 million on direct lobbying of Congress. That’s well ahead of the &dollar;597 million spent over the same period by the next biggest lobbyist, the insurance industry.

And all those dollars paid off handsomely, concludes the Center for Public Integrity (CPI), a non-profit organisation in Washington DC that has collated public records such as federal records and lobbying disclosure …

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